Microblog platforms (such as Twitter®) have become the voice of millions of users on the web today. Microblogs are somewhat different from traditional social networks in terms of shorter posts by users and a more open ecosystem. Although microblogs have historically focused on text-based messages, some now support images and videos. At the same time, some social networks are dedicated to photographs or videos. Posting photos has become easier with smartphones, and sometimes photos convey more information than text.
One trend in social multimedia is taking self-portraits, which are sometimes referred to as “selfies.” With the introduction of front facing cameras in smartphones, taking selfies has become especially easy.
From a business standpoint, microblogs can be a good source of marketing information that enables recommendations for products/advertisements to be directed to the right people. There are some advantages of focusing on users who are active on microblogs, including: (1) microblogs are generally more dynamic in their content and people tend to actively discuss current issues; and (2) microblog data is more accessible, especially for third parties.
A business application may associate social sentiment on current or happening topics with social demographics. For example, if a company is watching sentiment on a new product launch, or a political group has made an announcement, the company can find out more quickly what people think on the microblogs. If there are user profiles for the users (created explicitly by each user or developed implicitly from user activity), the company can evaluate what different demographic groups think. However, demographic information about users is not always available.